| Program#/Poster#: |
109.14 |
| Title: |
Signaled active avoidance learning recruits a prefrontal-hippocampal pathway for the suppression of innate defensive reactions |
| Location: |
S102 |
| Presentation Time: |
Sunday, Oct 18, 2015, 11:15 AM -11:30 AM |
| ++F.03.g. Motivation and emotions: Fear, anxiety, and pain |
| Topics: |
| Authors: |
*J. M. MOSCARELLO1, J. LEDOUX2,3;
1Ctr. for Neural Sci., New York Univ., New York, NY; 2NYU, New York, NY; 3Emotional Brain Inst., Nathan Klein Inst., Orangeburg, NY |
| Abstract: |
Signaled active avoidance (SigAA) behavior models the proactive coping processes that can mitigate the impact of aversive or anxiety-provoking stimuli. In SigAA, subjects learn that a response performed during a CS causes the omission of an aversive US. Pavlovian reactions, such as freezing, predominate early on during training, but are suppressed as avoidance is acquired. Using a yoked control paradigm in which master subjects can control stimuli for themselves and their yoked partners, we demonstrate that masters display less CS-evoked freezing than yokes in both the avoidance context and an alternate context that does not allow for the avoidance response. These data indicate that acquisition of the avoidance contingency fundamentally alters the response to a threatening CS, attenuating its ability to drive innate defensive reactions. This process is mediated by a pathway including the infralimibic prefrontal cortex (ilPFC) and the dorsal hippocampus (DH). Chemogenetic inhibition of either structure robustly enhances freezing to an avoidance CS. In the case of both ilPFC and DH, inactivation produces levels of freezing comparable to poor performers, or subjects that fail to suppress freezing and acquire SigAA. We conclude that ilPFC and DH translate learning about the avoidance contingency into the diminution of freezing. These data suggest that an internal locus of control reduces the perceived intensity of a threatening CS, highlighting the potential efficacy of active coping based therapies for disorders of fear and anxiety. |
| Disclosures: |
J.M. Moscarello: None. J. LeDoux: None. |
| Keyword
(s): |
AVOIDANCE |
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PREFRONTAL CORTEX |
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HIPPOCAMPUS |
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